Opinion | Another Amazon acquisition brings us closer to the death of privacy

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The U.S. is grossly underprepared for big tech's privacy invasion.

Even if Amazon tries to protect consumer privacy over profits , there are still risks involved with any mass collection of consumer data, especially at this enormous scale. Malicious third parties can hack into corporate systems and expose consumer information. Data brokers and aggregators can buy and repackage data from multiple sources, compounding the risks of reidentification of personal information, making it more likely that information that was once private can be linked to individuals.

And Amazon isn’t the only tech giant using strategic mergers and acquisitions to consolidate and grow its access to personal data. In the past, Meta received backlash for consolidating its market power through acquisitions of WhatsApp , Instagram and Oculus . Alphabet Inc. has also branched out in the past, with acquisitions as diverse as self-driving car company Waymo and health care wearable company Fitbit.

Current privacy laws do not fully protect our privacy rights, especially at a time when tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet are buying up all our data. Current privacy laws do not fully protect our privacy rights, especially at a time when tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet are buying up all our data. We currently have no federal privacy law and thus no baseline regulation that provides standardized protections for privacy across all 50 states. Instead, we have a patchwork system of state laws and regulations that vary by industry, making it difficult for any company, giant or not, to fully comply with all privacy regulations.

For example, in the health care industry, you might have heard of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. However, what you might not know is that HIPAA is incredibly limited and only protects certain kinds of health information when electronically transmitted in scenarios involving a select category of health care provider. HIPAA is not a broad regulation that protects health privacy in all cases.

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You guys were for vaccine mandates and now you wanna cry about a roomba and privacy? Mmk

Not interested in any automated vacuum but thank you amazon for simplifying my life in so many ways!

Big brother is always watching.

Amazon in ewes home and big pharma in ewes dna.

You mean like being warned that Tik Tok is a Chinese data mining and spy app?

Saturday 08 _ 20 _ 2022 trump is dead not Me Police,: s Ever where

As was the plan of the people you protect with your lies.

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